Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!

G'day.....
We are sitting in the ACI marina at Dubrovnik waiting for suitable weather to make a transit to Corfu in Greece (about a minimum of 30 hours all going well). The winds are still howling today, however things are looking good for tomorrow, so we plan to leave at sparrows fart in the morning. Got to check out of Croatia before we leave which we can do at Gruz 24 hours a day, so that looks like the best option. We heard yesterday that the police were looking for some people who had stayed past their 90 day visa limit, so we definately want to leave the country before we outstay our welcome. We will have to come back to this part of the world next year as we have really rushed the southern part of the country.
We headed down here on Friday of last week from Mljet as the weather didn't look too great for our planned trip down on Saturday. We had the best sail that we have had so far on the trip and finally remembered what our sails are for. Only had to motor for the last few nautical miles to get up to the marina. Whoo Hoo! Hopefully there will be more of this to come.
We are now meeting 'live aboards' thick and fast and have had some great social connections here. We have met a couple from Brisbane (John and Jenny from Faraway) who are in the process of buying a boat here, Kate and Andrew from Lady Olivia (from Pommy land, but don't hold that against them), and another Aussie couple from Rockhampton (Ray and Kim from Karma Waters) who we have been hearing about for weeks but have kept missing. Coincidentally they are heading to Corfu tomorrow as well, so we will have someone else to keep in radio contact with during the journey.
As you can probably gather, yachties don't seem to worry about surnames. It is all about your boat and we refer to people as ' so and so, from (insert boat name)....
Apparently we shared a pontoon with the actor Ralph Feinnes for a few nights. He was, of course, on a massive, very impressive looking gin palace. Craig passed him on the pontoon, but I didn't have the pleasure. The paparazzi were crawling all over the place just before we arrived. Mark Veduka (the Croatian soccer / football player who was the captain of the 'soccaroos' for a while) also has a house and a boat here.
Keith and Sue and their lovely friend Terry arrived back in Croatia on Sunday and we have been discussing the trip. I am both excited and nervous at the same time as this is the longest non stop trip that I will ever have done. Craig, of course, is nonchalant about it all as he has sailed longer trips up the Queensland coast. We will spend today provisioning, refuelling etc so that we can head off at first light.
We had a quick look round Dubrovnik yesterday and it is an absolutely stunning place. There is a town wall which you can walk around which surrounds the old city and a gorgeous piazza type arrangement in the middle. It would be so good if we could understand Croatian, then we might have some idea what we are looking at, but it is all very cute anyway (and looks pretty impressive age wise). There is an old pharmacy museum took which tweaked my interest however it was closed when we went to go in, so something else to do 'next time'.
Anyway, gotta go and do the washing.... It's a hard life. Craig is doing boy stuff getting the boat in tip top condition to head off. Hopefully this will be our last night in a marina for a while as we believe mooring costs are a lot cheaper in Greece. OMG, another steep learning curve, but I can do it (I think!!).
Take care everyone and will talk soon......
xx
Lesley (from Shirley Valentine) :-))